


The Fire That Burns, Also Warms

by nolongervoid



Category: BoBoiBoy (Cartoon)
Genre: >:D, //screeeee, Bonding, Gen, Hurt/comfort kinda?, M/M, also haah tAKE THAT WRITERS BLOCK, anyway its a oneshot ay, blaze is disaster child, cant abandon 'nother wip, idk oop, ily and tbh, not too tsun here, rAREPAIR NEED MORE CONTENT, sai is tsundere, this is for u sketch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:13:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25272208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nolongervoid/pseuds/nolongervoid
Summary: Boboiboy has insecurities about Blaze. Sai comforts him. They're soft.
Relationships: BoBoiBoy Blaze/Sai, saiapi
Comments: 7
Kudos: 18





	The Fire That Burns, Also Warms

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tracing_Star](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tracing_Star/gifts).



> sketch ik ur starting school again today so i thought i'd yeet u some Gud Vibes n floofy saiapi 4 ur starved soul (n mine too holy heck-)
> 
> also lmao writers block can suck my productivity hAH

Sai doesn’t expect to find him alone in the hall, hunched on a makeshift bench away from everyone else, but he isn’t surprised. Boboiboy’s head is down, turning that signature orange cap of his over and over in his hands. He doesn’t sense Sai’s presence entering the room and the lights stay off as the older walks over.

“You’re not with the others.”

It’s a statement, not a question, but Boboiboy ignores it completely.

“Is Fang okay?”

“The medics treated him, he’ll be fine. Probably won’t be going out without sleeves anytime soon, though,” Sai answers. 

Neither of them laugh at the joke, and Sai sits down.

“What about you?”

“What about me?” the shorter asks, surprised.

Sai raises an eyebrow. “I hope you didn’t take the Captain’s scolding too personally. He tends to be reactive, especially in the heat of the moment when his brother is involved.”

“I know,” Boboiboy nods. 

He probably knows just as well as Sai, if not better. The Lance Corporal’s relationship with the brothers is distant at best - even Boboiboy is closer with Fang despite Sai having trained with him for longer and sharing a room at the station together.

Sai isn’t so satisfied with his response, though. “Then?”

Boboiboy doesn’t say anything for a few moments, then, “I don’t blame him, either.”

“No?”

“I hurt a lot of people. I couldn’t control myself, I just ended up making the situation more dangerous…” he shakes his head, “sometimes I wonder if it’s even worth it.”

“What is?”

The cap pauses its movement as Boboiboy stares down at his hands. “Using him, you know, transforming into Blaze and the fire powers…”

Sai waits for him to go on, and Boboiboy sighs.

“I just - he just - gets so impulsive and uncontrollable and sometimes even I get scared wondering what I could do when I’m - he’s - in that state of mind.”

He shakes his head as if to quell the confusion of how to refer to his powered split self. Sai briefly considers, too, how exactly Boboiboy would logically go about talking about his split selves. They were all the same person, and yet, the disconnect was clear.

“It was a stressful situation,” Sai thinks back to it, “especially in that form, you didn’t have as much reasoning time or ability. None of us did.”

“But I caused the most damage,” Boboiboy says. “I basically sabotaged the whole mission. What’s the point of having all that power if I can’t even use it right?”

Sai ponders over that silently. He, too, once thought that way, the first time they met. Incredibly powerful but dangerously volatile. Blaze - Api, then - could go from cheery and enthusiastic to raging and destructive in a heartbeat at any given trigger. Sai found it draining and repulsive. Now he realizes that it’s the anxious side of Boboiboy, the one part of him that always begs to expect the unexpected. A surprise among his comparatively predictable counterparts. Sai never liked surprises. 

But they’ve grown on him.

Boboiboy turns to look at him after the extended silence, so Sai speaks up again before the other starts to wonder if something’s wrong.

“You’ve used it to help, too,” Sai reminds him. “Without Blaze, Retakka would be all-powerful now. That incident alone should have shown you how important each one of the elementals are.”

Boboiboy thinks on that for a moment. “Still, of all the elementals, Blaze is just…” he shudders for a moment, likely in memory of recent events, “if I had to pick a least favorite,” he decides.

Sai’s voice is soft but definitive, “If I had to pick a favorite…”

The other peers at him in surprise, and Sai can’t help giving a small smile at the thought,

“It would be Blaze.”

Boboiboy chokes quietly, but only coughs twice. “What?”

The other nods, and he leans forward.

“Why? How?”

Sai’s grin widens despite his efforts to restrain it, and refuses to elaborate. It’s too much fun to keep the shorter hanging and guessing indefinitely to pass up the chance. Finally Boboiboy sits back and smacks him gently.

“I bet you’re lying, anyways,” he rolls his eyes.

Sai stops. “I’m not. I don’t lie.”

But Boboiboy is staring back down at his hands now, his cap back on his head, and his lips are curved down in a small frown. Sai hates seeing him like that, not only because it’s sad and, despite what others often think upon their first impression of him, he is a genuinely empathetic being, but because it’s the sheer opposite of the energy he’s grown fond of in the boy.

He doesn’t say it, and he won’t say it till he can’t say it anymore, but out of all the elementals, Blaze has a  _ vibe _ to him, this lively spirit that somehow never dies out. Others scoff, and even Sai has grown weary of it on occasion, but whenever someone tries to kill that vibrant flame inside him, he only comes back with more force. It’s beautiful and terrifying and Sai can’t get enough of it, if he’s being completely unashamedly honest with himself.

Blaze reminds him of what it’s like to truly be  _ alive _ , something he’d forgotten in years of military training, something that faded away in the day-to-day life of a galactic warrior going through the motions of attack and defense and rescue. He’s the passion and fuel inside Boboiboy, and seeing it raw, on its own, in his split form, is something incomparable. Indescribable. It’s the awe and fear of a fireworks show right in front of you - too close for comfort, and yet an experience like no other.

Seeing him like this, disappointed, low, faded, sad,  _ lifeless _ , triggers something else inside Sai and it’s an urge to set things right. Boboiboy deserves to be happy and alive and Sai wants to see him bouncy and eager and even a little chaotic.

So, in spite of himself, he reaches forward and rests a hand on the other’s shoulder. Boboiboy doesn’t look up right away, but he does pause. Sai can’t help himself from patting his head gently and messing a little with his cap. Thankfully it covers his hair, or else he probably would have found himself ruffling those soft, overgrown locks, too. Sai stops himself before his imagination races beyond.

“I like you when you’re throwing fireballs,” Sai admits. “It looks badass.”

Boboiboy stares at him.

“Yes, I, Sai, master of badassery, consider your fireballs badass. Also when you juggle with them. I actually...don’t know...how to juggle,” he says slowly, wondering if the situation is worth such a deep confession. Boboiboy is starting to look hopeful, though, so he lets it pass.

“I didn’t know I did, either,” the shorter says, thinking. “It just kinda happened and then next thing I knew it was something I was doing.”

“Jealous,” Sai mutters quietly under his breath. Blaze has a way of drawing people in and keeping them entertained. Sai hates people but he can’t say he enjoys others avoiding him because he’s too “cold and intimidating”.

“I just wish I had more control over it…”

“Why?” Sai asks, surprising him. “Let loose sometimes. Have fun. Commit arson.”

He shrugs, leaning back slightly, and Boboiboy gapes.

“Who are you and what have you done with Paint Tool Sai?”

Sai chokes. “ _ What?! _ ”

Boboiboy can’t hold himself back from cackling. “I’m sorry, it’s this nickname my friends made for you, there’s this art program on Earth-”

“Yeah I think I’ve heard enough,” Sai says quickly. “Please don’t call me that again, to my face or behind my back.”

Boboiboy nods, still laughing, and Sai softens slightly. He’s getting closer…

But then the laughs fade and they’re just sitting there awkwardly. Sai pats his shoulder again, and Boboiboy shuffles slightly in a strange movement that shifts him a little too close for comfort. Well, that’s Sai’s first thought. His second thought is “hey, I don’t hate this…”, and to both their horror, he finds himself stuck in an endless cycle of absently patting Boboiboy’s shoulder. By now he’s been doing it so long it’d be more awkward to stop.

The room is even darker now, before either of them had realized it, the lights in the hallway are one by one turning off. Sai gives into the continuous shoulder-patting and starts to zone out, letting his mind wander. The silence is comfortable, really, and he’s rather pleased with himself at having been able to make the shorter feel at least a little bit better.

His hand lands one more time and makes contact with bare skin, and he pulls away quickly, hissing. He stares back at Boboiboy, only now the other is wearing red, and stops.

Blaze raises an eyebrow, though his lips, curved up in the slightest of smiles, betray him. “Eh?”

Sai rubs his hand, it stings mildly. “You’re so hot…” he explains, then realizes his words a moment too late.

Blaze is outright smirking as Sai hurries to correct himself, but the damage is done. The older curses silently and regrets ever approaching Boboiboy to begin with.

“I know I’m hot, but it’s nice to know you think so too,” Blaze grins, and Sai resists the urge to slap him. “Soo you were saying..?”

Sai pauses. “What?”

His face falls. “I’m your favorite?”

In that moment of doubt, Sai’s instincts prevent him from logically answering, instead he rushes to confirm, “well yes, of course-”

Blaze’s eyes light up and he grabs Sai in a hug that would strangle him if it weren’t for heavy military training that rendered TAPOPS members immune to this degree of force. That doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable - Blaze’s body temperature is a little too warm to be pleasant right now - but eventually Sai becomes used to it and even starts to enjoy it. Too soon, Blaze pulls away, still smiling brightly.

_ “Oh, God, what have I done?” _ The thought occurs to Sai for but a moment of rational mind, before sheer protectiveness kicks in and he can’t bring himself to despise Blaze for the time-being. He’ll take it all back sooner than later, but for now, Boboiboy is happy, Blaze is back, and the night is young.

(He takes it back every day for the rest of his life but never once regrets it.)

As long as those amber eyes glint with excitement and those hands spark dancing flames out of seemingly nowhere, Sai falls in love every single day until the day he can’t hide it anymore.

(A building burns down that day, but a bridge is built up to face the test of time and pass with flying colors.)


End file.
